When Parachutes are Anvils
by Rinne
Summary: Tony was wondering whether he was making the exact same mistake as they made with Kate. Ep Tag for 4.04 Faking It. COMPLETE


Title: When Parachutes are Anvils  
Rating: Teen  
Spoilers: 4.04 Faking It, Twilight  
Genre: Gen  
Disclaimer: Own nothing, not being paid.  
Author's Notes: Huge thank you to kate98 and Cha Oseye Tempest Thrain for betaing.Written for a prompt of 'fall' on livejournal and from an additional prompt of 'crystal ball' to help start me writing. The title and last line come from watching way too much Bugs Bunny when I was a kid.

It'd be nice to have a crystal ball. To be able to see into the future, change all those foolish choices, point out that just because they took out several shooters on the roof it didn't mean that Ari wasn't still out there with his sniper rifle pointed at them. Although, at the time, he hadn't known that Ari had a sniper rifle.

They'd known just what he'd been capable of. They hadn't killed him; why would they have assumed that they were safe? It was a stupid mistake. A mistake that got Kate killed.

Now, Tony was wondering whether he was making exactly the same mistake. Except, this time the sniper was Gibbs, and he had Tony's entire team in his scope.

Tony was scared.

Something had happened with Mike Franks and Tony wasn't sure what. What Tony did know was that someone had hit him over the head and there was no sign of anyone else being at Franks' place. Which sort of ruled out the theory that someone had grabbed Franks and hit Tony over the head, and made it more likely that Franks had done the hitting and had run away of his own accord.

Kobach had been in touch with Franks, there was money involved and Franks apparently had evidence that he was sitting on. It all added up to the rather nasty thought that Gibbs' mentor was selling evidence to Kobach.

When they had gotten to the cantina, Gibbs had insisted on going in first. There had been gunfire, and when Tony and Ziva had gotten in, Kobach and his crony were dead.

Franks had walked outside and Tony hadn't seen him again. Gibbs just let him walk away. At best, Franks was a witness to a shooting; at worst he'd set up the whole thing, hit Tony over the head and killed Kobach while Gibbs watched.

And Gibbs just let him go.

Tony didn't have anyone he could talk to. He couldn't talk to his team about it -- one, they'd probably defend Gibbs, and two, he couldn't risk accusations he couldn't substantiate getting back to the director. He couldn't talk to Abby, she was already having a hard enough time dealing with how changed Gibbs was, and Ducky wasn't getting along well with Gibbs either. Add in a possible conspiracy murder and they'd be getting along fabulously.

Tony also couldn't talk to Gibbs. He wasn't the Gibbs that Tony knew and Tony couldn't be sure that Gibbs wouldn't whack him over the head, too. He was scared of how Gibbs would react, that he would go off the deep end, become less _Gibbs_ then he already was.

If this was what Gibbs was like when he'd first joined NCIS, then Tony was glad he'd never met the man. He couldn't respect this Gibbs. It had been getting harder to over the past year, with the way that Gibbs had been bending the rules. Tony had tried to reassure himself with the fact that it was another bad guy that had been taken out, a bad guy that they couldn't have gotten any other way. But, it was still _wrong_, and no matter how evil the bad guy was, it was never going to be right.

Gibbs was Gibbs. The guy was never wrong; he had years of experience - if he said it was right, well it must be. Gibbs' gut was never wrong.

Gibbs' gut wasn't a lawyer. The way Gibbs was going, it needed to be.

The team never questioned Gibbs' gut. Except, Tony had been in charge now. He had led the team, he had made the decisions, he had the experience. He'd always had experience, he'd just let the force that was Gibbs convince him that it wasn't enough to make the big decisions. He questioned Gibbs now.

Tony was in a dangerous position. If he didn't speak up, he was just as culpable as Gibbs. If he did, nobody would believe him or he'd ruin a man's career and possibly McGee's, Ziva's and his own. Every case they'd investigated could be called into question and dragged through the mud.

All he could think to do was to wait and watch. Confirm either way and make the decision then - try to prevent any repercussions it would have for his team. Try to protect Gibbs from himself, or not-himself, if the real Gibbs was the Gibbs from before Kate.

When the legend that was Gibbs imploded, you didn't want to be standing in the fallout.

Unfortunately, Tony knew he would be...and he didn't think a golf umbrella would help much.


End file.
